Zimbabwe minister threatens media crackdown

HARARE, May 3 (Reuters) - Zimbabwe on Thursday threatened a
crackdown on the media over what it called sensational and
inaccurate reporting, following stories over the health of
88-year-old President Robert Mugabe.

However critics said the warning from the country's
information ministry, controlled by Mugabe's ZANU-PF party,
could be an attempt to intimidate journalists ahead of elections
expected next year.

Senior ZANU-PF officials last month were forced to issue
statements dismissing reports that Mugabe was seriously ill in
Singapore, saying the stories were lies meant to destabilise
Zimbabwe.

Addressing journalists at an event to mark World Press
Freedom Day on Thursday, information minister Webster Shamu
said: "If the clearly anti-African and anti-Zimbabwe frenzy we
have experienced through some media outlets and platforms in
this country continues, and if the conspiracy of silence within
the media industry and profession also persists, the gloves may
soon be off here as well."

Mugabe was forced into a power-sharing deal with his rival
and now Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the Movement
for Democratic Change, after a disputed 2008 poll which Western
powers said was marred by ZANU-PF violence and intimidation.

Under the terms of the deal, elections must be held by next
year.
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